On Jan. 10, 1973, this applicant applied for a U.S. patent for his invention of a system for cooling and curing semisoft Italian cheeses, and that application issued into U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 on Oct. 7, 1975. Prior to that invention, the critical step of brining and cooling semisoft Italian cheeses, such as provolone cheese, was performed entirely manually. The bouyant blocks of cheese were floated in a tank of brine, and though the blocks of cheese were sometimes weighted to submerge as much as possible of the cheese, the blocks of cheese needed to be turned by hand at regular intervals.
Before applicant's invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174, to achieve the cooling necessary to stop microbial action the brine was refrigerated and the ambient air cooled in an effort to cool the parts of the blocks of cheese floating above the brine. However, the tendency of heated fluid to rise held the cheese-warmed brine at the top around the floating blocks of cheese, while entrapping the cooled brine at the bottom, so that cooling was very inefficient, and too often ineffective. Without sufficient cooling, cheese quality deteriorates rapidly.
Because the brine was prepared in the vat before U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174, much of the salt added either never went in solution, or precipitated out on the bottom of the vat, causing excessive salt usage, varying and unpredictable salinity of the brine, and consequent lack of effective control over and uniformity of brining. Also, impurities from the salt together with bits of cheese and fat accumulated in the vats, and these decomposed under the action of molds and other microorganisms to contaminate the brine, requiring that the vat be periodically emptied, the brine discarded, and the vat scrubbed out before being recharged with fresh brine.
In summary, the art before the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 was characterized by excessive labor demands, excessive space requirements, excessive energy consumption, and excessive salt usage, and produced widely varying and uncontrollable product quality.
The invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 overcame much of those defects. It provided a brining pit with an overflow tank that was connected to a separate brine mixing tank with filtration, pasteurization, and refrigeration apparatus connected to it so that the brine could be continually cleaned, reconstituted, refrigerated and recirculated to provide a more uniform optimal salt content, temperature and much improved cleanliness. U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 also teaches the use of large racks which could be loaded with blocks of cheese adjacent to the brining pit, and then carried by an overhead crane to the brining pit and submerged in the brine so that the blocks of cheese would be continuously and entirely immersed in brine, eliminating the need to turn blocks. By utilizing the full depth of the brining pit, the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 vastly increased the productive capacity of the brining pit.
However, a decade and a half's experience with the brining system of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174 has revealed to applicant opportunity for substantial improvements. A need developed to enlarge the capacity of the brining system substantially without incurring the high capital costs of heavy equipment required by the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,174. Also, a brining system was needed that could automate the brining step of cheese manufacturing, and thereby eliminate or minimize the human element, as a source of both error as well as cost. Finally, more perfect uniformity and control of temperature, brine concentration and brine purity was needed to perfect the uniformity of the product and quality control. The present invention satisfies those needs.